Monday, May 29, 2006

First off I just did three blog entries - see below for Saturday and Sunday's blog update!

We're very fortunate we had the whole three day weekend off! Today was our last day up north with grandma. It was my day to sleep in so I slept in until about 9:30, which was nice. We both stayed up until about midnight the night before watching 40 year old virgin. Very very funny movie. I also was scrapbooking but wasn't really in the mood to get a lot done.

Joey took an early nap today - dozing off at noon, before we even sat down to eat a turkey dinner/lunch. Joe's mom made a turkey and stuffing, and grandma made mashed potatoes and gravy - YUM! It was awesome. When we were done eating and doing dishes, everyone went off to take a nap. Joe dozed on the chair, Joe's mom went home to take a nap, grandma went to her room to take a nap and Joey was already sleeping. I (for once!) wasn't tired and finished up all my scrapbooking projects! I pounded out three layouts and 2 cards!

Once Joey woke up we decided to go back to Grandma Char's house to go back to the lake. By then the thermometer read 95.7 degrees! EEK!! Were we crazy?? This time Joe went with Joey and I and grandma stayed back. She said it was too hot out for her. On our way out there, Joey reminded us to watch out for the snake. It's amazing what he remembers!!

Joe and Joey swam in the lake. This time we put a life jacket on Joey since we took him out on the floating lounge chair. He loved the floating chair. We had him try floating in his life jacket but he really didn't like it that much. The dog was back swimming after her ball. When they were done swimming they came up to shore to throw rocks. Joe was skipping rocks and I couldn't believe when it went skipping about 9 times across the lake. I guess he's had a lot of practice living here for years growing up!

Grandma Char brought Joey out a 'picnic' lunch of a banquet frozen chicken fingers dinner and he was happy. He hadn't eaten in hours.

For the rest of the day we just relaxed INSIDE out of the sweltering 95 degree humid weather and then started to get ready to go home. We were sad to leave all this fun behind! :(

Once we got home, we got inside and KNEW it was going to be HOT. We never turned on the A/C and didn't know it was going to be in the 90s! We got upstairs and it was 93 degrees upstaris! OIY~~~ HOT! At least our lower level was in the 70s so the cats were dying in the house. We immediately opened the windows, put on the attic fan to pull in some outside 79 degree air and turned on the a/c. It's about 88 degrees now. It seems to keep cooling off downstairs, but not really upstairs where all of our rooms are! I hate that! In the summer it's blazing hot upstairs in the house and cool downstairs. In the winter it's really warm upstairs and cold downstairs. We let Joey go to bed late because we couldn't put him in bed with it being so hot upstairs. Tomorrow I have the day off so hopefully he will sleep in for me!

Sunday we woke up and got the cleaning bug. The room grandpa used to sleep in needed to be cleaned out. We were going to make it into Joey's room for when we visit up north. I think we must have cleaned out that room for THREE hours - no joke. A LOT of it was Joe's stuff from when he was a kid - baseball cards and junk. I think we threw out 5 huge garbage bags of stuff. The final result was a bed that Joey now can call his own and a room where we can stash all his toys - no more stashing it in the living room in the corner! I can't believe the different in the room! It looks so nice and open now! Before it was almost hard to walk into! WOW!

After we cleaned we had lunch around 11:30. We all ate steak and corn. We offered Joey corn but he wanted us to cut it up. Once we had the cobs half eaten he got brave and wanted to try it himself. He LOVED the corn. He ate every last piece off the cob we gave him. We ar going to have to make this at home for him more often - he LOVED it!!

After Joey's nap, we went to Joe's father's side of the family to see them for a Memorial Day party. It was soooo hot outside - 90s and oh boy was it hot. We slathered on sunscreen trying to keep from getting sunburnt. We had Joey wear a hat so his head didn't get burnt. The poor kid got sunblock in his eyes and I think his eyes burnt for about 5 minutes as we tried to have him wash and wipe his eyes with water. Lesson learned - don't put sunblock on his hands - he just uses them to rub his eyes!

Joey ate a lot of popsicles to keep cool. We had to take him in the house a few times to cool down. I didn't know until a lot later that they had just eaten lunch at 2pm (we came around 3) and poor Joey hadn't eaten lunch yet so he was really hungry. They didn't eat dinner until 7:30 so we tried to keep him munching on chips and whatever they had available. Had I known they just ate lunch I would have fed Joey before we left. Oh well, lesson learned - make sure the kid eats before going to a family party because you just don't kn0w the food schedule!

It was nice to visit with family. We took a few rides on the golf cart around Grandpa's fields. Joey enjoyed seeing the chickens and ginea hens (and boy were they loud)! We stayed over there until after dinner. After Joey ate he wanted to go running full speed across their yard. Joe and Joey were running together. I wasn't even going to attempt to run after them. Joey tends to do this right before he goes to bed - he will run full force and then conk out. We figured he was winding down for the evening.

On the way home we were coming up Grandma's driveway and there was this HUGE snake - and I'm talking about 4 feet long crossing the road. I haven't seen a snake like this before so Joe wanted to get out and take a few photos. This thing, when Joe moved to the side, it snaped it's head around to follow Joe. I was nervous it was going to strike out at Joe because it was SOOOO huge! Joe got back in the car unhurt but was also a little nervous. He was a few feet away from this thing but it was so big! We got back home and I found it to be a harmless Eastern Milk Snake. It was pretty much full size and eats other reptiles, rats and mice. It's not poisonous but will strike if it feels threatened! Joey saw the snake too. He kept saying 'HSSSSS'. We told him not to ever touch a snake because they bite. He kept saying 'Snake bite'. It was so cute!

Saturday was a lazy day for us. Joe and I took turns taking naps and sleeping in. At one point Joe was pretty much passed out on the couch, I had just woken from a nap so Great Grandma and I took Joey over to Joe's mom's house which is right down the street (Grandma Char is what Joey calls her) so we could go play on her playground that she has built for Joey and go see the lake.

When we got to Grandma Char's we went straight to the lake. Joey went on the dock and amazingly right into the water. Last year he was deathly terrified of the water and wouldn't even really touch it. This time he walks right in up to his knees. We couldn't believe it!

He passed the time picking up LARGE rocks and taking them to the dock and throwing them off the other side. He also liked to take smaller rocks and throw it into the water. I think we were outside for a hour or so. He loved every bit of it. Every time he went to pick up a huge rock he kept exclaiming 'Oh my GOODNESS'. It was so cute. Grandma even was amused by it. Hazel B the dog loved going into the water and playing with Joey and chasing her purple ball. We were all cooling down - it was in the 80's and warm!

When we got back we woke up Joe and I told him Joey went in the lake. He couldn't believe it either since he did not like the water last year. We had a great time going in the lake. He had so much fun.

We were trying to get Joey to look at the camera. We told him there was an airplane in the sky, so I got this photo like this.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Today I have to go to Livonia for Joey's ear checkup appt. I actually got there early for once. As I was getting Joey down I thought I smelled something foul. A check in his diaper confirmed my suspicions. So I cleaned him up, put the dirty diaper aside and then rummaged around for a new diaper. Looked in the car for the stash I usually have on hand and they are gone. Pull EVERYTHING out of his diaper bag and there are NO DIAPERS! Augh!!! What to do, What to do?!! I have never been without diapers before.

A quick glance behind me I spy target. Put pants on Joey and put him back in his seat and rush over to Target. I put him in the cart and pray that he doesn't pee while we are in the store.

I'm practically running (and it's not pretty because I'm preggo) through the store to the diaper section. I get him diapers, and butt paste for a little diaper rash he has and then rush to the checkout.

Once checked out I run into the bathroom and put a diaper on him. Whew! Crisis averted! He never peed in the short time it took for me to run him from the doctors office to Target and through the checkout. A bet most mommies have been in that situation before!! Whew!!

So anyhow the Dr. said his ears look great. Yay! I'm happy to hear this. The tubes are still in from Feb 05. Good!

Yesterday afternoon I met Melissa (My buddy on the side bar blog) for lunch. She met me at work and we went to Macaroni Grill. We had an awesome lunch and I had a great time! She gave me a bunch of clothes her son outgrew - THANK YOU MEL!! :) Here's a photo of Joey and I playing this new toy she gave us last night. I am pretty good at these type of toys and can usually pound out by sounding out the keys any nursery rhyme. I was doing twinkle twinkle little star, mary had a little lamb, happy birthday to you and a few more! I think I was having more fun than him! He also loved his Thomas the Train puzzle and made Joe put it together for him last night. AND thanks for the mound of clothes for Joey! I'll take ANY hand me downs!

Yesterday evening it POURED here. Bad storms, thunder and lightening. When it would thunder Joey would yell THUNDER! I'm just glad he's not afraid of it.

Those keeping up on the Jimmy Hoffa search (which is happening in my home town) - Here are the latest funniest signs in town:

Old McMaster had a barn - E I E I O!

Hoffa Mile Ahead. Experienced Diggers Wanted!

Welcome to Milford! Hoffa nice day!

and the best - a small store on main street is claiming to be selling 'Hoffa Artifacts'. Not sure what they are selling but there was a sign in the window. What a riot! Joe thinks this is silly but I get a total kick out of the ingenuity of the people who think of these witty signs!

I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you who read my blog and don't comment. I know there are a lot of you because you tell me from time to time you came to my blog. I just wanted to say thank you for reading!!!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

About a month ago Joey had photo day at his daycare and these are the results. Actually I was very happy with the photos, mostly because Joey will NOT smile for me when I take his photos! They said the way they got him to pose was with the truck or props. He did such a good job! He's wearing the sweater that my mother knit! Isn't it a gorgeous sweater!?

So anyhow, I wanted to update you on some new 'Joey'isms'. Last night we took a walk around the block and every time he got to a road crossing he would look both ways and say 'No cars'. My not-even-two year old child is already looking for cars when he crosses the street! We've been trying to teach him but he seems to be understanding! I love it but it's sad at the same time because he's growing up SO FAST!

Yesterday we were walking back home and Joe had Joey on his shoulders and Joe kept dropping down and saying 'Pop goes the weasel' and Joey was saying it too! He's saying EVERYTHING!

A week or so ago we saw a rainbow in the sky on the way home by our house. The next day we drove through the same spot and he yells out 'rainbow'. He remembered where it was the day before! Amazing!

He still loves Thomas the train more than ever. I swear every day he's been wearing Thomas the train shirts. Thanks to Nic (see friends to the side)! She sent me a few Thomas the Train shirts her son had outgrown and Joey has been wearing them daily! Ever since we saw Thomas the Train in person, he's been even more nutso about it!

If we go to the fruit market down the street - they have trains that run on rails over the heads of people in the store. When Joey sees a train he YELLS 'HI TRAIN', 'HOW ARE YOU TRAIN?', 'HAVE A GREAT DAY TRAIN'. It's so cute. I think everyone in the store can hear him when he yells it! LOL.

If the cat pukes a hairball on the floor, we've taught him to say 'Silly Cats', 'Puke'. I swear - every time the cat does it, I have a hairball patrol on the lookout! LOL

He loves his new bed. He's doing so well! We are so proud of our little guy!

When we ask Joey if he wants 'some' of something, he'll say 'Some'. It's so cute. Let's say I have some ice cream. Joey, do you want some? 'Some' he says. So cute!

The age of 2 is amazing! I'm sure he'll make the best big brother!

I'm sad. Tonight is the last night of American Idol! We love Chris and was so sad when he got voted off the other night! Augh!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

First off the morning started really really weird. It's 9am and Joey is still sleeping. I close my eyes and drift off until 9:30 when I wake up. I'm supposed to be ecstatic my son slept in, instead I'm worried! Joey is STILL sleeping. I walk in his room, yep, he's breathing. Whew! You know that feeling, I better check on my child to see if they are still alive - yep, that was my thought.

I could not believe he slept this long! So I checked my email, cleaned the house, checked on Joey again and again. Joe was so happy Joey slept in because today was his day to get up with him. He said, "Haha, I picked a great day to get up with Joey! haha'. So finally 10:30 rolls around and Joey wakes up. 10:30! My child normally wakes up at 7am during the week for daycare and sometimes will sleep until 8am on the weekends, but sometimes he only sleeps until 7am because of his routine. 10:30? I was still in shock. I figured he was nixxing his nap today. (See photo left of Joey in his cow pajamas that Grandma Char made. Aren't they cute?!)

Joey and I hung out while daddy was outside mowing grass. He was really hamming it up for the camera and actually WANTED me to take photos. How cool is that? He kept saying, 'More cheeser' because I tell him to say 'Cheeser' when he smiles for the camera! He's sitting on his superman chair with his bean bag in front.

I called our friends (Ryan and Sara and baby Hannah (14 months old)) and told them we could be over earlier for their bbq. They said that would be great, come at 2pm. Joey mowed the grass today and I cut some fruit salad for the bbq.

On the way there my boss paged me to dial in, and I told him I would once I got to our friend's house.

To make the long story SHORT - I got paged three different times over a period of 4 hours, and had multiple phone calls with people from work about password resets and our application being completely down. It was unreal! THANK GOD for monitoring! We found out on a Sunday -when no one is in the application that it was completely down and was able to fix it before the business day started on Monday. Whew!

Sarah and I ended up running to the drug store to get benedryl for her daughter because she broke out in hives and no one knows why.

Joey had a great time playing with Hannah's toys (Sara and Ryan's daughter) and playing with their dog Walter (a dachshund). They also had a pretty cool hammock in the back yard that Joey liked to swing on! We had a great bbq dinner - hot dogs, hamburgers and fruit salad that I brought which everyone loved. Hannah is such a great eater - ate lots of hamburger, hot dogs and fruit. So cute!

When we were done we battled the cold 53 degree weather to walk a 1/2 mile to the local ice cream place near their house. It was really good. Once we got back to their house after we walked back, we packed up and left. It was 8 pm already! Where did the time go? We got there at 2pm! We had a great day.

Not even 5 minutes into the car ride home Joey was fast asleep. What a great day to spend with our friends!

I went to the dr. this week and everything seems to be good. Heart rate was 156. Justin is still kicking away like crazy. In fact the cat is sitting on my lap and I'm surprised the kicking isn't scaring the cat off. It's not even phasing the cat. I guess we'll see when the baby gets bigger!

I feel huge for 25 weeks. The dr. has asked that I go on a 1800 calorie diet (the diabetic diet) and start eating better. Next appt is the gluclose tolerance test and my rhogam shot - ick. For those that don't know - the glucose test they make you chug this pop type substance and get your blood drawn an hour later to see if you have any gestational diabetes. The Rhogam shot is for woman that has a blood type and their husband has the opposite blood type. For instance I have a negative blood type and Joe's is positive. How lucky am I?! - that means another shot. (and then another after I give birth! augh).

The only good thing about having a big tummy is my bust doesn't look so big now. Haha, there had to be ONE advantage to all of this!

Week 25: This week your baby is about 9½- 10½ inches in length (crown-to-rump) and weighs almost 1½ pounds. This week your baby’s heart should be so strong that it may be possible to hear his or her heart beat by placing an ear on your belly. The retinas (in your baby’s eyes) have developed all the layers they will have at birth and your baby‘s eyes are blue, no matter what race because the pupils don’t acquire their final color until a few months after birth. Besides being wrinkled, your baby’s skin is also transparent and very thin, but it’s starting to thicken gradually and smooth out. While premature babies have a long difficult road ahead of them, if your baby was born this week he or she would have a good chance of survival, because of improved medical advancements.

Your uterus is approximately 2 inches above your belly button and you may have gained around 15-22 pounds so far. As you get bigger you may suffer from a number of discomforts, including back pain, because of the strain of your growing belly. Backaches can also be caused by your body preparing itself for labor and delivery by loosening your joints. Make sure you always bend at the knee, not at your waist and walk barefoot as much as possible, avoiding high heeled-shoes. Sleeping with an extra pillow between your legs at night may also help.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

My friend Caroline said that my old blog was crashing whenever you viewed an image or left comments and then went back to my blog. I could also recreate this problem and I had NO clue what caused it.

SOOO - guess what - another major blog upheaval. This one is actually a blogger template, but I customized it to the max. I added a banner where there wasn't one, changed all the background images and widened the borders. How do you like it? Let me know!

Oh and Caroline - is this blog crashing for you now?

Funny thing happened today. Joey, Joe and I usually go to the 'Ice Cream Place' (what Joey calls it) a few times a week. The owners know Joey by name and Joey knows their names. We get up to the order window and Joey orders a blue cone - which means a baby vanilla cone dipped in blue coating. Peggy (one of the owners) asked him if he wanted purple, because normally he says he wants purple coating in the car and changes it to blue when we get to the window. He yells, 'NO, I want BLUE'. Ok then kiddo! So Peggy normally holds the cone for Joey to take his first bite. Today she held it out for Joey, and Joey yanked it from her hand and took his own bite himself. What a stinker. We had to laugh about it. I think it took Peggy by surprise! LOL.

Not much going on today. We went to town to take some household stuff in for hazardous waste day - some car oil and a car battery. We were in and out of the place which was nice - no huge lines.

Then off to the post office. I mailed Grandma my blog (she loves to read it but doesn't have a pc) and Joe had something else to mail off.

Then off to Meijer to go grocery shopping. We were in there a little longer than I wanted to be. I got a few watch batteries replaced. They were only $3.00 each - a lot cheaper than a whole new watch ($10 +)!

Then, Oh crap - I was late to Lori's wedding shower. So when I get home I turbo change and jump into my car. I got behind every slow ass driver on the earth, got stuck in construction twice, and made it to her shower 1/2 hour late! Augh! I felt pretty bad, especially since she specifically asked me to take photos of her shower. Her shower went well and she got a lot of really nice gifts. The food was great too. Here's my favorite photo of Lori from the afternoon. Doesn't she look great?! She's my buddy whom we call each other every day on the way into work and chat and chat! She works with me too but we don't have a lot of time to talk at work since we are so busy, so we catch up on the way in!

Tonight we ate burgers and fries for dinner. Then we took Joey to the playground and then to the ice cream place. That's about all.

Oh and I'm still glad to be home (after that airport snafu!). There really is no place like home!!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Ok - first of all. I've been going a little blog crazy so there are probably like 4 or 5 entries below you haven't seen. So make sure to look below.

So what is the weird twist at the end of our trip? Remember how I told you we missed our airplane at the Phoenix airport on the way to Seattle? WE MISSED THE AIRPLANE ON THE WAY BACK HOME TOO!!!

Well, another stranded airport trip under our belt! This time it was NOT our fault. They blamed it on Mother Nature. We don’t think it was 100% nature’s fault.

They had thunderstorms/sandstorms in Phoenixand we kept circling around the airport. Joe was starting to get sick from the circling. He told me he was ready to grab for the barf bag. Then they announced the good news was we were going to stop our holding pattern of circling in the air waiting to land, but the bad news was we needed to go to Las Vegas to refuel. Originally we were going to stay there and connect from there, then they said, no, we would just refuel and then go BACK to Phoenix.

Down on the ground in Las VegasI called Caroline who said our connection flight was delayed too, but there was no way we would make it back in time. We were supposed to land in Phoenix at 5:10. It was almost 6. Our connection to Detroit was supposed to leave at 6:10 but Caroline told me it was delayed until 6:30.

Back in the air to Phoenixwe go. I think it was 6:30 at this time. I was thinking the worst but hoping for the best. I was seriously going to be angry if we got stranded AGAIN at the same damn airport.

I felt bad for all the mothers on the flight with very young children. We were on the flight a long time and with the landing and taking back off, I can only imagine their ears hurt a lot. There was a woman one seat back and across the isle from us with what looked to be a toddler who was a year and a half and a newborn who she said was 1 ½ months old. They did extremely well considering the long flight and all the taking off and landing we did. I'm glad I wasn't her but she said they actually travel a lot.

When we got back to Phoenix Joe looked at the departures and Detroit had already left and there were no more flights going to Detroit. Yep – we missed another departure AGAIN – and IN PHOENIX! Man, why couldn’t they have just left us at the Las Vegas airport? We could have at least went gambling!

So we stopped at the desk and they told us, sorry, there are no more flights going out of Detroit tonight so you will have to call and reserve a hotel and they weren’t going to pay for it, since they said it was weather related. Weather related? If we didn't run out of fuel we would have been able to hold in the air long enough for me to make my flight!!! I was pissed off. The next flight was going out of Phoenix to Detroit was at 9am and wouldn’t get into Detroit until 4pm Eastern. Oh fricking great! So we are wasting another day.

The thing that made us the most angry was that we really wanted to see Joey, we were homesick by now, and now we knew we wouldn’t be seeing him until late at night on Wednesday, where we were originally going to get into Detroit at midnight that night and Joe's mom and Grandma were going to drop him off in the morning.

We called Joe’s mom and told her that we missed our flight due to thunderstorms and we wouldn’t be getting into Detroit until at least 4pm the next day. She was bringing Joey down to our house so she had to change her plans since she planned to come in the morning, now she’d be coming in the evening to drop him off. I was crying by then, mostly because I just missed Joey and wanted to see him and we knew that it wouldn’t be until late the next day now.

We asked the people at the desk to NOT send our luggage anywhere. We wanted to pick it up so we could at least live out of it that night. Last time we got stuck in Phoenix we had NO luggage and that sucked!

Down to baggage we went. We never saw our luggage. We went to the US Airways counter to ask about it and they said there was a minimum of an hour before we would get it because they would have to find it and then load it into baggage. Finally – an hour went past and our baggage finally came through. FINALLY. Oh and by the way - this is American West airlines in case you were wondering.

I called this number to get a distressed passenger rate on a local hotel. It was the CrownPlazaand sounded nice. We finally got our baggage and called the hotel to get a shuttle. They didn’t answer. By then I’m pissed off. So I called again and again. Come on - pick up the phone! I need a SHUTTLE to come pick my butt up from the airport! Finally I called the reservation number. They asked if I talked to someone in Phoenix. I told them I tried to call the hotel but no one answered. He said they would try and they got a hold of someone and told us to go wait out front for the shuttle after he got a hold of someone. There was another family there with two younger girls and she was going to the same place as we were and had missed their flight as well so we rode the shuttle together.

I told them I was starving and hadn’t eaten since lunch. It was 8pm by then. I told them I was pregnant and the girls thought it was cool that I had a baby in my tummy. They offered me a salami sandwich and I accepted. It was good to eat something. We played around in the hotel for awhile while we were getting our rooms. The girl was jumping around on the colored tiles and said the white one were alligators and we couldn’t step on them. She was so cute.

Finally we got our room – on the executive floor for the rate of $59. The lady at the hotel counter said it was an awesome rate because their going rate for the night was $239! The floor we were on needed our room key inserted into the elevator to light up the floor number. The room wasn’t totally out of this world, but it had a fridge and microwave, which was nice and a few little extras like a linen spray and special soaps.

We ordered in pizza and it was expensive. A medium pizza, three toppings and a 1 liter of pop was $22.00.We ate that and then went to bed.

In the morning it was a frenzy of packing the rest of our stuff up, and getting ready to leave so we could catch the 7am shuttle back to the airport. Back on the airplane and it's a long flight - about 4 hours. Never are we doing another connection like that! Awful I tell you! Who connect from Detroit to Phoenix to go to Seattle? Dumb I tell you!

Hours later we get into Detroit. It seemed like forever before we got the bags and to our car. I was almost ready to KISS our van when we saw it.

When we got home I was almost ready to kiss the house (can you imagine driving by seeing someone kissing the bricks of their house? I was ready to!). Instead I bolted into the house to hug and kiss Joey. He looked a little startled and surprised to see us. It was a happy reunion and I almost cried seeing him, I was so happy. So that is our little trip gone wrong! At least we had a great time with Caroline and Jason, but we were really happy to be HOME!

Monday Caroline and Jason needed to work (they own their own business). Joe and I had to occupy ourselves so we decided to go to Mt.RainierNational Park. It’s a mountain you can see from Seattle, but it’s actually 80 miles away.

The ride out there took about an hour and a half and the scenery was beautiful. It was a unusually hot day for Seattle – in the 80’s, which was near their record-highs. As we climbed the mountain we were watching to see if the thermometer in the car got cooler - we were climbing a mountain after all! About ½ way up into the mountain we started to see snow. It was pretty wild. It was in the 70’s and yet there was still a little bit of snow on the ground. Every now and then there were scenic lookouts to stop and get out of the car and take photos. In one spot there was a waterfall which was really pretty but it was hard to see from the way the lookout was setup.

Once we got a little further up into the mountain we started to see a LOT of snow. I still couldn’t believe it was 70 + degrees and not gone yet. In Michigan we have massive piles of snow in parking lots from the snow plows plowing it all into one spot, but when it gets to be about 50/60 degrees, it all melts. A lot of it was melting and running off the cliffs and under the road or into ditches and then tunneling down the mountain. There was still a LOT of snow.

As we climbed higher we got more excited. It was so high in the air, that sometimes going around corners was pretty scary. The cliffs going down were going straight down hundreds of feet below. I got nervous when Joe was looking over the edge because he was driving. It was so high up it almost scared me! I didn’t want to look down because I felt if I did, we could go down the mountain. I knew that wasn’t true since Joe was driving but still, it was a scary sensation.

Finally we got to the top of the mountain. I was expecting this awesome lookout and there wasn’t one. The only thing at the top was a TON of snow – I’m talking 20+ feetofsnow (see photos below). People were tubing and skiing down the mountain in their shorts because it was still 69 degrees at the top. It was really wild. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.

We needed to get back to Seattle once we got back to the top of the mountain. We were meeting Caroline and Jason for dinner that night at a Steak House – their favorite spot to go. So down the mountain we went. Going up was much more fun –all the anticipation of going to the top and wondering what you will see (though it was disappointing, I was really hoping for a spectacular view) that going down we were like, been there done that and just wanted to go home. We went through a town called Puyallup on our way to the Mountain and it seemed to be really nice.

Back to Seattle we drove – another hour and a half drive back. We waited around awhile at Caroline and Jason's house and then went to their favorite dining spot called Jack’s. It’s a high end steak house.

They brought their own bottle of wine to eat with their steaks they were going to order. I didn’t really want steak so instead I ordered a pork with chutney and mango salsa which was really good. It came with a large salad, huge pieces of broccoli (Yum), a huge baked potato and the main course. We had a great time. Afterwards we got some dessert as well. Don’t even ask how much the bill was when we left. It wasn’t cheap. Most every night when we went out this entire vacation we spent at least $50.00/night on dinner and drinks. I can say I ate pretty well this trip!

The Waterfall that was hard to see.

69 degrees and look at all that snow! I can't believe it!

Joe in front of the huge snow hills at the top. See the people in their shorts?

I’m 24 weeks now. This week involved a lot of walking and the walking involved a lot of pelvic pain. I’m not sure why the pain is so bad there right now, but it’s hard to turn over in bed in the evening and hard to walk sometimes – which makes me waddle. It's hard to pick up my legs to put on pants, I'm just SORE.

Everytime I sit back in a chair or in bed sitting up, the baby kicks. Just Monday I was laying down in bed in the evening and Caroline felt baby Justin just kicking away. He kept kicking and kicking too. He’s quite active when he wants to be. I’m surprised he’s kicking so hard so early.

I’m to the point right now where I’m uncomfortable about the weight I’m gaining. I’m starting to feel like I’m gaining a lot and I’m hungry a lot.

One of my favorite ways to sit is with my legs crossed over and I can’t do that anymore. Not sure if it’s because my legs are larger or my stomach is larger but either way, I can’t do that anymore.

I got my first leg cramp on Friday during the night which made me jump out of bed and walk on it. It was pretty sore on Saturday as we were walking around in Victoria all day. I had them really bad with Joey. I learned NOT to stretch my legs out in the evening or early in the morning while in bed.

I can’t believe I have about 12 weeks left. It seems like so long and because of the pain I’ve had and the weight I’ve gained, I’m getting nervous about how big and how much pain I’ll be in when I get closer to my due date. Wish me luck! I feel HUGE already!

Week 24: Your baby is about 8½- 9 inches in length (crown-to-rump) and weighs about 1¼ pounds. Your baby’s lungs are gaining blood vessels now, preparing them for taking over the task of getting oxygen into the blood stream. They have also begun to develop surfactant, a substance that will help your baby's lungs to expand following birth. In the coming weeks of pregnancy, your baby will continue to grow in length and weight at a steady pace and his or her movements will get stronger and more forceful inside your womb. Most of your baby’s weight gain is in the bones and muscles, as they become harder. Your baby’s eyelids may have separated, allowing your baby to open his or her eyes.

The top of your uterus is well above your belly button now and you are really looking pregnant to others at this point in your pregnancy. You may be experiencing more and more tightening and relaxing in your lower abdomen, which are Braxton Hicks. They will become more frequent and increasingly noticeable as your pregnancy advances. Drinking fluids and resting may help quiet your uterus. On a good note, these ‘practice’ contractions begin the process of ripening your cervix (softening and effacement), which just might mean an easier and quicker labor when the time comes.

4 Jobs you have had in your life.1. Grocery bagger2. Stocker - then night stocker for the same grocery store3. College computer co-ops for Northwood University, Dow Chemical and Monitor Sugar Company4. Systems analyst where I currently am

4 Movies you would watch over and over.1. I don't really watch movies...2. I do like the Shawshank Redemption3. Will Farrell movies. My husband and I think he's a stitch.4.

4 Places you have lived1. Garden City, Michigan2. Howell, Michigan3. Midland, Michigan4. Royal Oak, Michigan (the last place I lived) (I've never lived outside of Michigan)

4 TV shows you love to watch1. The OC2. American Idol3. Clean House4. (don't have a 4th!) (I used to watch ER until recently!)

4 Places you have been on Vacation1. Mexico2. Seattle, WA3. Oceanside, Oregon4. North Carolina

4 Websites I visit daily1. Gmail to get my emails from yahoogroups2. Freecycle.org - or at least get emails through yahoogroups from freecycle.org. Freecycle rocks!!!!!3. Bloglines.com - To see who updated their blog recently.4. Blogger.com.com - for my blog and to visit my friend's blogs (let me know if YOU have one!)! Blogging rules!

4 of my favorite foods1. Pierogies2. Kaluski (fried noodles and cottage cheese - it's polish and so are the pierogies!)3. Hot home made meal. I cook a LOT. I love to cook.4. I'm craving eggs EVERY morning!

4 Places I would rather be right now.1. Carribean2. In Seattle visiting my friend Caroline3. Somewhere warmer!4. On a cruise!!!!!

Four names of your children you may or may not have?1. Joseph (DS)2. Justin Scott (Future DS)3. Caroline jennifer (if we had a girl)4. I like Carter for a boy too.

Now I tag: Enid, Mehgan, Melissa, Kristi S.If you already did it, then just relax! :)

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

On Sunday we setup a tour for the Butchart Gardens. We boarded the buses in front of this very spectacular old hotel called the Fortress (see photos of us below). It was a 45 minute drive to the gardens.

The gardens were GORGEOUS. The flowers were all in bloom - especially the tulips. I loved the Japenese gardens. There was streams and ponds flowing through all of the Japenese gardens. It was so soothing to walk through it. These happened to be my favorite photos from the trip. The trip would have made my mother totally jealous because she happens to love flowers. The landscaping was amazing. It was worth the trip - even if you don't care much for flowers.

The story behind the gardens is this man found this limestone quarry and invested all his money to dig it out and found his fortune in this quarry. In the meantime, his wife decided to landscape the bleak pit into a magnificient garden. They showed before and after pictures of the quarry and it was amazing how they did the transformation!

Caroline and I in front of the Fortress Hotel.

Joe in front of the Fortress Hotel.

What it looks like as you enter the Gardens.

Me in front of some pretty flowers.

Me in front of a beautiful water fountain.

Joe in front of the water fountain.

Shot of the water fountain again. I did these shots with an aperature of 20 so the background and foreground are both in focus. I love this depth of field technique!

Japanese Gardens. So pretty!!

A breathtaking view from the quarry waters.

This woman was sketching here and I LOVED how this photo turned out.

Joe and I at the end of our tour. It was a LOT of walking!

That evening it was time to return to the boat. We had dinner before we left and off to Seattle we went to finish our great weekend!

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About Briana...

It's the little moments that matter most in life. The moments that are often forgotten...unless recorded.
Welcome! I'm Briana. We are Michiganders that have relocated to Dallas, Texas and LOVE it here. We have two kids - Joey who's 14 and Justin who's 11. We have a cat and 2 dogs.
I'm used to be an avid scrapbooker, photographer and now I'm obsessed with Genealogy.